ANTSTORE World of Ants

[JimmyVe]

Queen 1

10/07 captured
11/07 1st eggs
29/07 1st larva
31/07 1st cocoons
18/08 1st workers
29/08 16 workers


Queen 2

10/07 captured
18/07 1st eggs
02/08 1st larva
04/08 1st cocoons
23/08 1st workers
29/08 6 workers

[JimmyVe]

These are both Lasius niger queens.

[Sam]

Hi Jimmy,

How are they doing? Do you have any pic's of them & setup?

[JimmyVe]

Hi Sam,
They both are doing really great up to a 100 workers already now.

I have some pictures of them (but not from the setup i think) hold on i shall take a look.

i found some pictures but i must say, they where taken two moths ago. 2 pictures are from feeding time the other picture is from in there tube (they still are in the tube) with a lot of larva.

[Sam]

They do look happy devouring that half cricket / locust / roach. Larvae looking plentiful too.
Keep up the good work.

I prob shouldn't post comments here, sorry chaps.

[JimmyVe]

it is a piece of cockroach they are eating.
most of the larva you see here are now little workers.

not a problem.

[sithmaster676]

looks good jimmy
from what little experience i have Lasius niger generally increase in colony size very quickly my colony came with just 11 workers and queen now they have at least 40 larva some eggs and some cocoons
Sithmaster676

[JimmyVe]

They in deed grow very fast. that is the easy part from this species. and they adjust very well.

[Sam]

Are they still living in the test tube Jimmy or have they moved out yet? I guess whilst they are in the test tube you can see the colony developing quite clearly.

[sithmaster676]

jimmy's, i would be surprised if they were still in the test tube but mine sadly still are
that is the only problem with lasius niger species they don't like to move homes.
Sithmaster676

[JimmyVe]

That is true, they are very slow movers.

They are still in the tube, but i added more tubes to it. They are now in 3 tubes. Soon the colony will be big enough to move to a y-tong nest. If they are in need of space they will move faster.

[Sam]

So the colony is spread over 3 test tubes, I guess the workers just moving the eggs to tube with the most room.
Do you cover the tubes? & have you attached a nest area? pic's?
4 weeks for my first lasius to move into their display ain't too bad then.

[JimmyVe]

4weeks are not bad at al.

In deed they are spread out over the 3 tubes, i have covered them. The don't like light in there nest. If the colony is to small they can not keep the y-tong clean, that is one of the mean reasons why i keep them in tubes until the colony has about 100 workers.
I shall try to post some pictures soon.

[Sam]

More pictures would be good.

Does it take approx. 1 year for LN colony to reach 100 or so workers, depending on conditions?

[Bob]

That's what I like about Lasius niger. They are tough, hardy and adaptable ants and usually do well in the process of colony rearing from a single queen. Great job on them.